Mexico

We Could Try Radical Humanity

Last week, the Biden Administration announced immigration policies that would make it virtually impossible for migrants at the southern border to seek asylum in the United States. Among the new — and unlawful — policies is the requirement that asylum-seekers show they have applied for asylum in one of the countries they have traveled through. But, according to international law, applying for asylum in one country disqualifies a refugee from seeking asylum in a second country, such as the United States. Places like Guatemala, El Salvador, and Nicaragua are not safe for refugees, and processing asylum claims can take years. The Administration’s cruel Catch 22 will cost many lives and require Central America and Mexico to assume even more responsibility for problems created by the United States itself.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/07/08/root-cause-central-american-migration-united-states/

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How St. Jerome Helps Me To Be a Better Neighbor

There is a stone carving above the front gate of my house that depicts a man and a lion resting together peacefully next to a scroll. As I learned today from my friend Adam, the carving tells the story of St. Jerome who welcomed an injured lion at the gate of his monastery. The other monks fled at the sight of the lion, but St. Jerome carefully removed a thorn from the lion’s paw. The scroll is a reference to St. Jerome’s work as a librarian.

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The Blessing of the Horses

San Miguel de Allende is one celebration after another, especially at this time of year. Last weekend was La Alborada, celebrating San Miguel’s patron saint with fireworks, dancing, parades, music and things I can’t even describe. One of the most beautiful of La Alborada’s events is the Blessing of the Horses and I was there on a horse.

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Cloud House

“Casa Nube” (“Cloud House) by Mexican artist, Beatriz CotaA.

This morning my neighbor, Daisy, came to my gate hoping to get some breakfast, just as she does several times a week. She doesn’t smell very good, and her coat is usually matted on one side. Even though Daisy is a border collie, she was measured as she always is. I opened the gate and she waited quietly while I filled a bowl with kibble. While she ate, I poured bird seed into a couple of bird feeders, and replenished the hummingbird feeder with sugar solution. Well, I thought, I’m becoming one of those grandmother types from my childhood who fed apple slices and vanilla wafers to everyone on the block.

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The Balloons at Calle Torres Landa

When I left my job in San Francisco 8 years ago to travel the world, I told my colleagues that I felt like the boy in “The Red Balloon,” sailing into the clouds to an unknown destination. I left, and what started as a six month adventure became an 8-year lifestyle. Houseless, I’ve made the world my home, with unfamiliar rooms and unpredictable rhythms. It has been a romantic time in my life, learning things about the world I never imagined, and freeing myself of a few of my acquired illusions. I’ve lived my longing.

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Bird Box

If you are a Norteno living in San Miguel de Allende, you either know Susan Page or you will at some point. Susan put San Miguel on the literary map when she founded the San Miguel Writer’s Conference in 2004. She and her husband, Mayer, also travel all over Mexico to collect Mexican folk art. This is the story of a wooden box I saw in one of their galleries.

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Dia De Los Muertos — Celebrating the Dead and the Living

An ofrenda at San Miguel’s Juan de Dios market

If you’ve seen Disney’s “Coco,” you know at least a little about Mexico’s Dia de Los Muertos. Day of the Dead celebrates the loved ones we have lost because remembering them keeps them alive. Here in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico, it’s a time of traditions that date from the time of the Aztec empire — as well as some modern adaptations.

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